Essay on Changing Rural Caste Stratification in India (622 Words)

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Essay on Changing Rural Caste Stratification in India!

Social stratification is a system of ranking of groups that are ‘exclusive’ and ‘exhaustive’ in nature. Variations in the patterns of stratification emerge from the varying principles of ranking, modes of interaction among the ranked strata and more importantly the openness or closedness of membership to these strata. The changes in the patterns of social stratification in rural India are as follows:

There is evidence that at the village and the regional levels, there has been upward social mobility in case of the middle castes and middle peasantry. The traditional upper castes have suffered a decline in relative social status or even suffered proletarianisation in some exceptional cases. The middle castes have also gained political influence at the village and the regional levels.

At the national level, the upper castes and urban middle classes, and not the peasants or middle-rank castes, with roots in villages, have the monopoly over power, new economic opportunities and social benefits. The upper castes constitute the Indian power- elite.

Since this power-elite also controls the decision making processes for the nation as a whole and for the states, its role assumes significance in the system of stratification. The pattern of stratification in this context is, for the most part, segmentary because the upper castes at the national level do not constitute a group but a category.

Consequent upon the growth of industrialization, urbanization and modernization, rural caste stratification is changing very fast. As A. R. Desai rightly points out caste plays a vital role so far as the productive system of the village is concerned. Further, the role of caste in determining the consumption pattern of the ruralites is significant.

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Moreover the different patterns of village settlement are determined by the caste. For instance, the Rajputs and the Brahmins have their settlements closer to the ruling caste. The untouchables and the tribals reside in the outskirts of the village. The trading and agricultural castes generally’ occupy the central part of the village.

K. L. Sharma aptly points out that in rural India certain new castes have emerged as a result of new macro-economic and political development. They have emerged as new status groups. They occupy higher social status as compared to the traditional upper and middle castes. The changes in the caste system are markedly visible in the decline of the Jajmani system, emergence of modern occupations, in the form of new dominant groups and families, decline of untouchability and the pollution-purity principle.

The changes observed in the caste system are basically structural and peripheral in nature. Structural changes have significant bearing on the rural caste system. Abolition of zamindari and jagirdari systems, introduction of Panchayati Raj, adult franchise, cooperatives, land reforms etc. constitute structural changes. The peripheral changes comprise setting up of modern educational institutions, construction of roads, public health centres, communication links etc.

Factors such as modernization, sanskritization, desanskritization, values of achievement like democracy, socialism, secularism etc. education, hegemony of the higher castes, extended patronage etc. are responsible for effecting major structural and peripheral changes.

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Despite these changes, the truth remains that caste still provides the sociological matrix for allocation of status to families and individuals. However, its scope is increasingly being restricted through emergence of diverse types of interest groups, quasi-groups and classes.

In rural India, class formations do come into being as a result of the operation of the dialectical laws of contradiction of economic and power interests of various groups. But these class structures function merely as the newly emerging property of a set up caste and kinship structures. These do not as yet have attained any structural crystallisation in the system of social stratification.